Inhibition by surgical procedures and drugs of accelerated growth of salivary glands of rats

¹ Biological Research Laboratories, Harvard School of Dental Medicine; and Department of Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

The increase in weight of the submandibular salivary glands which usually follows amputation of the lower incisor teeth was not observed when amputation was preceded by bilateral injection of ethanol into the pterygomandibular space. Implantation into the incisor pulp canals of cotton pledgets impregnated with ethanol or formalin did not prevent the response to amputation. Although resection of a portion of the inferior alveolar nerve did not alter the response of the glands to amputation in rats with intact teeth, the weight of the glands increased slightly after resection of the nerve alone. The increase in gland weight which follows a single amputation of the teeth did not occur in rats treated with barbital, or with chlorisondamine, a ganglionic blocking agent. An adrenergic blocking agent, Dibenamine, not only blocked the response to amputation of the teeth but resulted in atrophy of the submandibular glands in intact rats. It is concluded that the data support the reflex neurological explanation of the phenomenon previously offered, and that the sympathetic nervous system may be involved not only in the response to amputation of the teeth but in the maintenance of normal gland size and function.

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